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PALUDICULTURE – ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF

SPHAGNUM FARMING ON REWETTED BOGS IN
NW GERMANY

CONFERENCE PAPER · JUNE 2012

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2095.0722

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 14th International Peat Congress

Extended abstract No. 369

PALUDICULTURE – ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF SPHAGNUM FARMING ON

REWETTED BOGS IN NW GERMANY

Sabine Wichmann
University of Greifswald, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Grimmer Strasse 88,
17487 Greifswald, Germany, Phone/Fax: +49-3834-864143, wichmann@uni-greifswald.de
Greta Gaudig, Matthias Krebs, Hans Joosten (all University of Greifswald)

SUMMARY

Paludicultures provide a sustainable wet land use option for degraded peatlands. The changes
in ecosystem service provision are assessed for a 4 ha large Sphagnum farming site in
Northwest Germany. Compared to the former bog grassland we find an improvement of
provisioning services (long term perspective, renewable alternative to fossil ‘white’ peat),
regulating services (reduced GHG emissions, rare habitats) as well as cultural services
(preservation of palaeo-archives). These external effects should be incorporated in decision
making on peatland use and provide good reasons for facilitating paludiculture with public
money.

KEYWORDS: bog grassland, Sphagnum biomass, sustainable management, economics,

external effects

INTRODUCTION

Ecosystem services are ecosystem functions that provide a benefit to human beings.
Ecosystems may affect humans positively but also negatively. Usually neither the benefits nor
the damages are fully accounted for in land use decisions since relevant products and services
are either not marketable (e.g. nutrient retention) or the prices do not incorporate external
effects (e.g. loss of biodiversity through peat extraction). Providing an inclusive and accurate
estimate of value is crucial for enabling a more rational and informed use of peatlands (cf.
Wichmann et al., 2012). While quantification and monetization is often difficult, already the
qualitative recognition of benefits may raise sufficient awareness for ensuring conservation
and sustainable use (TEEB 2010).
Sphagnum biomass promises to become a renewable alternative to fossil ‘white’ peat in
horticultural substrates (Gaudig & Joosten, 2002; Emmel 2008). Sphagnum farming may thus
help to curb the loss of pristine bog ecosystems by reducing the volume of extracted fossil
peat. When implemented on degraded peatlands Sphagnum farming will furthermore – like
other paludicultures (cf. Abel et al., this volume) – replace a non-sustainable by a sustainable
land use option (Joosten et al., 2012; Barthelmes et al., this volume).
In this paper we present a first analysis of the change in ecosystem services that result from
converting bog grassland into a Sphagnum farming site.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

Ecosystem services before and after establishment of Sphagnum farming were assessed for a
4 ha large site in the ‘Hankhauser Moor’ next to Rastede (Lower Saxony, Northwest
Germany), where Sphagnum farming was established in spring 2011 (Gaudig et al., this
volume; Krebs et al., this volume). Before establishment the site had been drained, fertilized
and used for many decades as traditional German bog grassland (‘Deutsche
Hochmoorkultur’). Supplementary field data were collected from a second Sphagnum
farming site in the “Esterweger Dose” near Ramsloh (Lower Saxony, Northwest Germany)
established in 2004 (Gaudig et al., this volume). Ecosystem services – including provisioning,
regulating and cultural services – were described on the basis of field assessment and
literature studies.

RESULTS

Provisioning services

Provisioning services from peatlands create marketable products such as food, timber and
peat for fuel or growing media. In the past the peatlands in the project region have been
drained and turned into pastures and meadows. As the quality demands for fodder for dairy
cattle (the most profitable type of grassland use) increased, peatland use was further
intensified or changed to subsidy dependent meat production and mulching. Peat oxidation
over several decades of drainage has nearly consumed the layer of slightly decomposed
‘white’ peat, with increasing difficulties for conventional, drainage based agriculture.
Traditional German bog grassland seems to be running out with just a short future remaining.
Establishing Sphagnum farming as a wet land use could pose a long-term alternative as it
stops peat degradation. Sphagnum biomass has shown to be a promising renewable raw
material for growing media as an alternative to fossil peat. While Sphagnum farming under
current circumstances cannot compete with the low prices for ‘white’ peat, it can already be
profitable through high revenues on existing niche markets.

Regulating services

Peatlands fulfil a wide range of regulating functions such as for carbon and nutrient cycling,
water quality and quantity, local climate, and as habitats. In the following we discuss carbon
storage and habitat provision.

Carbon storage
Living peatlands have been accumulating peat and sequestering carbon for thousands of
years. Even after carbon sequestration stopped because of drainage, peat layers of several
meters still contain huge amounts of carbon. During the establishment of the field trial in
2011 drain pipes were found in a depth of ca. 20 cm which had been installed 120 cm deep in
1958. This subsidence of 100 cm within 50 years indicates a loss of 2 cm per year. As a result
the area lies nowadays 0.5 m below sea level. The major part of subsidence can be ascribed to
peat oxidation which has been causing high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Literature data
indicate a clear correlation between GHG emissions of peatlands and mean annual water table

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(Couwenberg et al., 2011). Assuming moderate drainage, emissions of 15 t CO2eq ha-1a-1

(without N2O) can be estimated for current grassland use in the project region.

In contrast to conventional, drainage based peatland use, Sphagnum farming demands

rewetting and thorough management of the water table since Sphagnum productivity is
slowed down or stopped by limited water availability as well as by flooding. Under
Sphagnum cultivation emissions of N2O are halted, CO2 emissions strongly decrease and
methane emissions presumably hardly occur. First results of chamber measurements of gas
fluxes on Sphagnum farming sites with well-established moss lawn (Ramsloh, Lower Saxony)
indicate a slightly cooling effect by the growing moss lawn and a neutral climatic effect when
considering regular moss harvest (Höper, 2012). Taking into account higher emissions from
the establishing phase (Albrecht & Glatzel, this volume) and from the infrastructure of the
production site (peat dams, irrigation ditches), for which no emission data are available yet,
total emissions of 5 t CO2eq ha-1a-1 are assumed for the production system. Thus the avoided
emissions amount to 10 t CO2eq ha-1a-1 compared to the moderately drained bog grassland.

Rare habitats/species
Three/four decades ago wet bog grasslands were still important habitats for breeding waders
such as Curlew (Numenius arquata), Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) or Common Snipe
(Gallinago gallinago) (Hötker, et al., 2007). Intensified land use (e.g. earlier date and
increased frequency of mowing) reduces nesting and fledging success and turns these
grasslands into ecological traps (Kleijn et al., 2001), while restricted use (‘extensification’)
aiming at protecting breeding waders may lead to rush (Juncus effusus) dominated grassland
with high and dense sward structure unattractive for the target species (Rasran & Jeromin,
2010). Despite protection measurements, populations continued declining and the species are
endangered or even extinct in NW Germany (Melter & Welz, 2001). For the project area
‘Hankhauser Moor’ accordingly no breeding of waders was recorded in recent times.
In contrast to its former importance for breeding waders, bog grassland could in terms of plant
biodiversity never compete with species rich, wet fen meadows. Furthermore, intensively
used grassland is dominated by regularly sown in species. Vegetation survey of the project
site before establishment of Sphagnum farming identified merely trivial pasture species such
as white clover (Trifolium repens), fodder grasses (e.g. Alopecurus pratensis, Poa pratensis)
and pasture weeds (e.g. Cirsium vulgare, Juncus effusus, Rumex acetosa).

For establishing the Sphagnum farming sites the Canadian Sphagnum layer transfer method
(Quinty & Rochefort 2003) was applied. With the Sphagnum diaspores from donor sites seeds
of other species were spontaneously introduced to the newly established fields. While not
being the target in Sphagnum farming it may be a positive external benefit to provide
substitute habitats for bog species such as sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), beak-sedge
(Rhynchospora alba), cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum), and cross-leaved heath (Erica
tetralix). In addition to those plant species, a very rare myxomycete (Badhamia lilacina) and
rare bog spiders (Pardosa sphagnicola, Bathyphantes setiger) were found on the trial site near
Ramsloh. Once extensive Sphagnum farming sites are established they might become suitable
for rare breeding waders including even Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria) of which the last
few pairs in Germany currently breed on bare milled peat extraction sites. An open question
remains whether sufficient invertebrate prey can be provided on site under wet and poor soil
conditions or whether a mosaic of different land-use types will be needed. But mowing one to
two times a year to reduce dominant weeds such as rush (Juncus effusus) and harvesting only
every 5 years may create appropriate habitats, certainly when disturbance during times of
breeding and rearing chicks is avoided.

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Cultural services

Cultural services provided by peatlands encompass inter alia opportunities for recreation,
aesthetic satisfaction, inspiration and knowledge development. Compared to cultural services
from other ecosystems, peatlands have an outstanding importance for research and education
as archives of landscape and climate development as well as of human history. In the peat
information of thousands of years is accumulated in systematic layers, including macro- and
microfossils such as seeds, plant tissues and pollen and archaeological remains such as bog
bodies, tools, ornaments and weapons. Drainage based land use destroys these archives. Only
rewetting the peat body, for instance for Sphagnum farming, will preserve the still remaining
information.

CONCLUSIONS

Bog grasslands in NW Germany are reaching the end of their economic existence. As a
consequence they are progressively used for maize cultivation for fodder and biogas plants,
but at the expense of enormous CO2 emissions from the oxidizing peat (Joosten et al., 2012).
On other agricultural sites new peat extraction areas are opened. Also in the project region
“Hankhauser Moor” land owners gave up grassland use and sold their land to a peat
extracting company which applied for a – so far not granted – licence to extract peat on
several hundreds of hectares. All these land use options maximize the provisioning services
for marketable goods and / or subsidy support. All of them also depend on deep drainage,
which constrains the natural ecosystem services of peatlands and causes negative
externalities.

In contrast, Sphagnum farming on rewetted peatlands stops the degradation of agriculturally

used peatlands. It ensures the combination of a long term perspective for the provisioning
service and the improvement of regulating services (reductions of GHG emissions, substitute
habitats for rare species dependent on treeless peatlands) as well as cultural services (e.g.
archives of landscape) typical for natural peatlands. Last but not least providing a renewable
raw material for growing media would decrease the pressure on pristine mires.

A comprehensive economic valuation of peatland use must go beyond profitability and should
take into account external benefits and damages now and their flow over time. Society has
good reasons for facilitating paludicultures on degraded bogs and supporting the sustainable
production of a promising, renewable raw material for growing media. The ecosystem service
concept allows peat extraction companies, farmers, nature conservationists and policy makers
to consider the special case of peatlands and rethink financial incentives to land use options in
order to serve the principle “public money for public goods”.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The study has been facilitated by the German Agency of Renewable Resources (FNR),
Torfwerk Moorkultur Ramsloh Werner Koch GmbH & Co. KG, and Deutsche
Torfgesellschaft mbH, whose financial and in-kind support is gratefully acknowledged.

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REFERENCES

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